This invention relates to a method and a system for registering existing documents.
It is generally common to register received and sent documents to be able to prove which documents have been received and sent. In doing so, customarily, data regarding documents are registered. Documents, such as incoming mail, are moreover provided with a stamp to indicate that a document has been registered and when it has been registered. Recording the existence of a document and the time when the document has become available is also of importance for other applications, such as for registering declarations such as proces-verbaux and for determining the date of transactions.
Maintaining such an administration is very time-consuming and for many applications such an administration is not sufficiently protected from modification afterwards. Particular problems are proving the authenticity, or at least the authentic contents of documents, proving the time of registration of a document, and proving non-receipt of a document.
It is an object of the invention to provide a solution which enables registering documents in a simpler manner.
According to the present invention, this object is achieved by providing a system for registering existing, physical documents, having a data processor structure arranged for determining codes; a marking assembly coupled to the data processor structure, for providing each document to be registered, or a physical or digital representation thereof, with at least one mark which represents one of the codes, a protected information carrier; and registration means coupled to the data processor structure, for registering a code of the codes that corresponds with at least one applied mark, on or in the information carrier, in response to the application of the at least one mark. To this end, the invention further provides a method for registering existing, physical documents, wherein in each case a code is determined by a data processor structure; a marking assembly is actuated for applying at least one mark, which represents the code, on each document to be registered; in response to the application of the at least one mark, registration means are actuated by the data processor structure; and accordingly data corresponding with the code are registered on a protected information carrier.
Because it is one and the same data processor structure that carries out the determination of the code, the application of a mark corresponding with the code, and the storage, in a protected memory, of codes of the codes that correspond with applied marks, a safeguard in respect of the authenticity of stored data regarding documents is obtained in a highly efficient and reliable manner.
The marking assembly can be designed in many ways, for instance in the form of a printer, a perforator, an embossing station, a branding element or a device for applying labels.